BORGIA, bor'ja, Cesare, Italian ecclesias tic and soldier: b. 1476; d. 12 March 1507. He was the natural son of Rodrigo Borgia and a Roman lady named Vanozza. His father, who in 1492 became Pope, with the title of Alexan der VI, made him a cardinal. When Charles VIII of France made his entry into Rome, Alexander was obliged to treat with him and delivered Cesare Borgia into his hands as a hostage, but he escaped a few days later. In 1497 Alexander bestowed the duchy of Bene vento on his eldest son, Giovanni, who had already received from the King of Spain the duchy of Gandia. Giovanni died shortly after his investiture and Ccsare has been accused of murdering his brother out of jealousy, but historical proof of this charge is utterly lack ing. His father permitted him to abandon his ecclesiastical office and devote himself to the profession of arms and sent him to France to carry to Louis XII the bull for divorce and dispensation for marriage which he had long desired to obtain. Louis rewarded Borgia with the duchy of Valentinois, a bodyguard of 100 then and 20,000 livres a year, and promised to aid him in his projects of conquest. In 1499 Cesare married a daughter of King John of Navarre and accompanied Louis XII to Italy. In two successive campaigns he made himself master of the Romagna, Perugia, Piombino and the duchy of Urbino. His vaulting ambition planned a reconstructed kingdom of central Italy with himself at its head, and a powerful league was formed against him. His own offi
cers attempted to arrest his progress, but he misled them by a feint, divided them, invited them to Sinigallia and there passed on them sentence of death (December 1502). The death of his father on 17 Aug. 1503 materially altered his prospects; the accession of Julius II to the papal throne was followed (January 1504) by his renunciation in favor o( the Pope of all claims to the Romagna, which he had governed with justice and integrity, earning the re gard of his subjects. Borgia was subsequently arrested; spent two years as a prisoner in Spain; made his escape to his brother-in-law, the King of Navarre, whom he accompanied in a campaign against Castile, and was killed by a shot before the castle of Viana. His ac tive career was lived within four years; but his boundless ambition, indomitable energy, disre gard of all laws, genius in war and skill in administration have rendered him one of the most extraordinary figures in the period of the Renaissance. Consult Creighton, 'History of the Papacy) (London 1897) ; Fyvie, 'Story of the Borgias) (New York 1913) ; Villan, 'Machiavelli' (London 1892) ; Yriarte, 'Cesar Borgia' (Paris 1889).